Technology

Rather than completing another equity raise, the five-year-old mortgage technology company went looking for a partner.

Average days to close dropped closer to pre-pandemic levels in April, according to ICE Mortgage Technology.

The cloud-based mortgage closing platform’s Series D round earned $150 million for the company.

The deal adds to the burgeoning technology stack at the Houston-based title underwriter, which added NotaryCam in December.

While COVID-19 pushed digitization to the forefront of lending, a majority of borrowers still want some degree of human interaction, according to a survey by ICE Mortgage Technology.

The move formalizes the use of the Rocket Mortgage moniker, which has been a major part of the company’s branding since 2016.

What are the most exciting trends in financial technology today, and which startups are poised to win?

COVID-19 has shown us that technology can rapidly evolve to meet customer needs, in areas from contactless payments to digital banking to mobile wallets. However, we still see great disparities when it comes to the use of contactless and digital banking by low- to moderate-income (LMI) workers. The question is, will emerging tech in the post-COVID economy provide an opportunity to include new people in the financial system-- or leave them even further behind?

The Biden administration may finally be close to naming an acting comptroller of the currency. Whoever gets the interim job or is confirmed to run the agency over the longer term will have a lengthy to-do list, from Community Reinvestment Act reform to deciding the fate of divisive Trump-era rules.

Also, per-loan compensation keeps dropping due to the persistence of refinancing in the mix but it could rise as the purchase share of the market increases.